


Here There be Monsters

by ashley_in_the_know



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Jurassic Park AU, Multi, all romance is super background
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 14:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15438996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashley_in_the_know/pseuds/ashley_in_the_know
Summary: Scanlan Shorthalt is about to open the greatest theme park the world has ever seen. Through the miracle of genetic engineering, Shorthalt's team of brilliant scientists, led by Dr. Anna Ripley, have brought dinosaurs back to life. And soon, he's going to unveil his magnum opus to the world.That is, if he can convince his investors that the payoff is worth the risk.A series of unfortunate accidents have left the investors and lawyers rather uneasy. Not to mention, there's been some dissension in the ranks. So, he invites some experts to tour his island for a weekend. Experts whose names would surely soothe any fears should they give his park a thumb's up.And because he's so confidant in his park, he invites his daughter Kaylie and her friend, Kynan, along. After all, Jurassic Park is meant to be enjoyed by children. Everything is coming along perfectly, he's spared no expense. It's going to be a weekend to remember.What could possibly go wrong?





	1. Prologue: On the Shoulders of Giants

Vex reaches carefully for the small creature tangled in the barbed wire at the top of the fence surrounding the raptor paddock. Grog’s hands are tight on her waist, her right-hand-man steady beneath her, more reliable than any ladder. Safer too, in her opinion, with these electrified fences. She’s wearing thick rubber gloves that extend past her elbows, just in case.

“C’mere, you little monster,” she coos. The baby raptor squeaks its distress, lashing out with a snap at Vex’s fingers. Another good reason for the gloves, she thinks.

The tiny jaws latch around the meat of her left hand, but she manages to grab its lower body with her right and draw it out of the wire without hurting it further. She cradles it to her chest, letting it chew on the glove, its teeth not yet sharp enough to penetrate the thick material.

“We’re good, Grog,” she says, eyes scanning to see how the little dinosaur could have gotten into the top part of the fence while she’s still in the air. She spots it as he’s lowering her to the ground; a tree that’s been planted just a little too close to the fence. She’s been studying the raptors for months. They can climb, they can jump. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that a tree that sturdy shouldn’t be so close to the fence. It’s honestly a miracle that one of the adults hasn’t attempted the same stunt that the baby pulled off.

Pike is at her side immediately once her feet hit the ground. The little veterinarian tickles the raptor’s jaw until it releases Vex’s hand, then bundles it into a towel, making a cursory inspection as she carries it back to the nursery. “Weird,” she murmurs.

“What?” Vex asks.

“I can’t find this little one’s tracking tag anywhere,” Pike says. She turns to their boss, who’s been supervising from a safe distance. “Scanlan, tell Ripley that she missed another one,” she says before scurrying off to the main building.

“Yeah, ‘cause  _that’s_ going to go over well,” he mutters. He turns his attention to Vex. “Well, did you figure out how she even got up there?” he asks.

She nods, stripping off her gloves. “You see that tree closest to the fence?” He nods. “She climbed that and jumped. Probably would have cleared the fence entirely if it weren’t for the barbed wire. The whole tree’s gonna have to come down.”

Scanlan frowns. “Really?” he grouses. “Do you realize how much of a hassle that’s going to be?”

Vex stares him down. “Seeing as how it’s going to be my crew taking it down, yes, I do.”

He huffs. “Why does it  _have_ to come down?” he asks. “It’s a nice little tree, it’s not hurting anything.”

“Not yet,” she counters. “But, given enough time, that thing’s gonna be sturdy enough for the adult raptors to climb. And unless you want another Natibe on your hands...”

“Alright, alright, I get your point,” he says, sighing. “The tree comes down.”

* * *

 

They use feeding time to bait the adult raptors out of the jungle. There’s only three of them left out of a brood of ten, and it’s been a bitch to try to introduce new broods into the paddock. They don’t appear to have any kind of maternal instinct whatsoever. Anything introduced into the paddock that is weaker than the trio becomes an instant meal.

Vex catches sight of their approach from her high position, motions silently to the crew with their tranquilizers. Vorugal is the first to poke her head out of the foliage, the largest, the most feral, and the least intelligent, though that wasn’t saying much. Brimscythe darts out next, the smallest and the fastest.

Raishan is the last to show herself. The most intelligent of the three, she clearly senses a trap. She’s barely peeking out of the bushes when Vex gives the signal, and six darts find their targets. The velociraptors fight the tranqs for a few minutes before they all slump to the ground, unconscious.

“Raptors are down, Jarett,” Vex says into her walkie-talkie. “Raise the secondary fence. Over.”

“Copy that, Vex’ahlia,” he replies. “Raising secondary fence now. Over.”

There’s a loud grinding as a ten foot barred fence rises from the ground along the perimeter. It allows work to be done on or near the fence without the workers being in danger from the more vicious carnivores. In Vex’s opinion, it’s still not enough. But Scanlan won't let her destroy his precious raptors, and he's the one signing her fairly large paycheck, so...

“Alright, crew, you know the drill,” she calls out, descending from her vantage point. “Quick and thorough. We want to be in and out before those fuckers wake up from their nap.”

She takes a skeleton crew in to cut down the tree, just two others besides herself and Grog. Vex hangs back to keep an eye on the raptors, while Grog wields the chainsaw with precision. It shouldn’t be a long job, the tree isn’t very big, but she still doesn’t like being in here.

She casts an anxious glance at the raptors when Grog starts the chainsaw. It’s fucking  _loud_ , louder than she was expecting, and it’s making her nervous. She swears she sees Raishan’s eye open, then scolds herself for being silly when she takes a second look and the raptor is still out cold.

The chainsaw gets stuck for a moment, about halfway through the tree, and both Shayne and Cordell turn to watch the raptors. Brimscythe’s tail twitches, but they’re otherwise still, and Vex gives her crew a reassuring nod.

After that, the tree comes down quickly. It is then chopped into three parts and carried out of the paddock. Grog gives her a grin and a thumb’s up, and Vex breathes a sigh of relief as Cordell and Shayne leave the paddock without incident.

The crackle of her walkie-talkie breaks the peace, and she barely has time to register Jarett’s voice yelling, “Vex, look out!”, before claws are digging into her shoulder and leg, pulling her back against the bars of the fence. 

Cordell and Shayne pull their guns, taking aim at the raptor behind Vex, but Grog charges towards her, bellowing “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” She tears herself out of the raptor’s grasp, feeling blood gush down her back and calf as she rolls forward out of reach. Grog’s fist comes down hard on Raishan’s snout, stunning the beast for a moment, causing her to stumble back before attacking the bars with fresh vigor.

“Fuck, boss, you alright?” Shayne calls, her gun still trained on Raishan.

Vex nods weakly as Grog pulls her to her feet and out of the paddock. “I’ll live,” she says quietly. She can hear people shouting for a doctor, in both English and Spanish. She jumps when something brushes against her leg, sighing when she recognizes Trinket’s familiar bulk. Her dog whines, nosing at her injured leg. “I’m okay, buddy,” she whispers, scratching his ears. “I’m okay.”

“She played us,” Grog says wonderingly, watching Raishan battle angrily with the bars. “Pretended the tranq knocked her out like the other two, then waited for her moment to strike.”

Vex nods, tries to focus on anything but the biting pain, the blood soaking the back of her shirt. “Clever girl.”

 


	2. Right up your alley

His tiny trailer is only slightly cooler than the oppressive desert heat when Vax leaves the dig site for the day. He grabs a bottle of water from the fridge, chugging a good third of it before flopping down on the couch and reaching for his laptop.

"How's the wi-fi working today?" he asks, tilting his head backward over the arm of the couch to stare at Keyleth, who's sitting cross-legged on her bed, typing away steadily.

"So-so," she says with a shrug. "That wind storm earlier really fucked with the signal."

Vax frowns. "And now?" he asks, finger hovering over his computer's power button.

"Four bars." She smiles. "I can be finished for the day if you want to Skype with Vex," she offers. "Just give me, like, two minutes to save my stuff and send an e-mail."

"Are you sure?" Vax asks. "I know you've got important shit going on right now. I don't want to keep you from your work."

Keyleth rolls her eyes, not looking up from her screen as she types. "First of all, this isn't technically  _work_. Just a side project. Helping out an old friend, you know?" she says. "Percy can wait one day for my notes so you can talk to your sister. Also, I offered, didn't I?"

He hesitates, still feeling guilty. "Well, yeah, but..."

"But nothing, Vax," she says. She hits a few more keys, then snaps her laptop shut. "I need some fresh air anyway." She slips on a pair of sandals, and grabs a bottle of water and her phone. "I'm going to go commune with nature. Tell Vex I say 'hi', okay?"

Keyleth is out the door before he can respond. He shakes his head, then grabs his phone and fires off a text to his sister.

**You free?**

_for you? always :)_

_what's up?_

**Can we skype? I miss your face...**

_of course! just give me like five minutes to get dressed & shit_

He wrinkles his nose, booting up his computer as he responds.

**Ew. Too much information.**

_i was sunbathing you weirdo_

_not texting you naked_

_don't be gross_

_god_

**If my phone could send emojis, I would be rolling my eyes at you right now**

_loser []_

_[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]_

**brat**

**I'm gonna grab food while my computer gets its shit together. I'll call you**

Five minutes later, he's settling in on his bed with his laptop, a plate of reheated pasta, a bag of Doritos, and three bottles of water. Just to be safe. He tends to lose track of time while he's talking to Vex. She's been in Costa Rica for nearly four years now, working on some secret project. He hasn't seen her in person in almost two. It's some form of spectacular torture that he's not sure either of them deserve. But he sucks it up because she's happy. And all he's ever truly wanted for Vex is for her to be happy.

When she answers his call, he's greeted by his sister's million-watt smile and the familiar backdrop of her bungalow, which gives absolutely no indication as to where she is in the world. She'd joked once that her NDA's have their own NDA's. At least, he  _thinks_ she was joking. He'll be the first to admit that he has no idea what his sister does for a living, only that she makes enough money to ignore the fact that it's stupidly dangerous.

"Hey, Stubby. Long time, no see." Vex's happiness has always been infectious, and he can't help but return her beaming grin.

"I knooooow," she responds, pouting briefly. "Two weeks is  _far_ too long to go without doing this," she says, and alright, maybe their friends are right to call them melodramatic. Plenty of siblings go longer without seeing or hearing from each other. But they're twins. It's different.

"How are you doing?" he asks, as though they don't talk every day. "Looks like you're healing up nicely," he observes with relief. The last time they'd had a Skype date, her right shoulder and leg had been heavily bandaged. She'd been mauled by one of the animals that she worked with, though she wouldn't (or couldn't) tell him what it was. She'd brushed it off, as usual, but he'd been ready to fly down there and drag her back to Nevada with him.

"I'm pretty much back to 100 percent," she confirms, playing with her braid. "I've only got about a week's worth of antibiotics left, and Pike's got this salve that she's been letting me use to make the scarring  _way_ less gruesome. Like, seriously. This shit works miracles, Vax."

"You know what else would probably work miracles?" he prompts.

Her expression tells him that she knows exactly what he's about to suggest and is humoring him. "What's that?"

"A fucking vacation, Vex'ahlia."

She sighs, and he watches her ever-cheerful facade crumble for just a moment. "You know it's not that simple, Vax."

"I know. I get it. I  _do_ ," he insists at her raised eyebrow. "It's just...do you ever take a day off?" She opens her mouth to respond, but he cuts her off. "And mandatory sick leave because some beastie tried to  _eat you_ doesn't count."

She sticks her tongue out at him. "I get days off, occasionally," she says. "It's just difficult when you're  _so close_ to getting something on its feet, and it's basically all hands on deck at all times." She sighs again, and in that moment, he can see just how tired his sister truly is.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I promise I'm not trying to stress you out."

"I know," she says, rubbing at her eyes. "But, as if that weren't enough, all of this terrible shit keeps happening, and lawyers are potentially getting involved now, and I honestly don't know if we're going to open on schedule, if we even open at all."

Vax frowns. "What kind of shit's been happening that lawyers need to get involved?"

"Well, there was my accident, obviously," she starts, rushing on before he can argue that her getting mauled isn't something he would consider an  _accident_. "And there have been a couple of weird injuries, and of course there was the whole thing with Natibe...you know..." He nods grimly because he does know. Well, sort of. Because she's never actually told him how the man died. Technically, she's never actually told him  _that_ the man died. But he'd seen her face the day after it happened, and he's never seen Vex look quite so haunted.

"And, to top it all off," she continues, "Grog got electrocuted yesterday."

" _What?_ Holy shit, is he alright?" he asks.

She nods. "Yeah, he'll be fine, just some minor burns, thankfully." She shakes her head. "He was doing some work on a paddock fence, and while the voltage wasn't at full strength, thank god, because it probably would have killed him if it was, the fence wasn't supposed to be  _on_ at all."

Vax shakes his head. "Seriously, Vex'ahlia, what kind of animal could possibly need to be kept in a paddock with an electric fence strong enough to kill a man the size of Grog?"

"Nice try, Vax," another voice calls, and moments later his sister's roommate is poking her head into frame to stick her tongue out at him.

"Hey, Pickle," he says, grinning.

"Hey, Stringbean," she replies. "How's life in the desert treating you? Dig up anything interesting lately?"

He shrugs. "It's hot, windy, all that shit. As for the digging..." He pauses dramatically. "You're both sworn to secrecy, of course, but we think we might have found a fully intact velociraptor skeleton."

Vex actually squeals. "Vax! That's so exciting! When will you know for sure?"

"Well, we just stumbled across her today," he says. "So, if weather patterns hold...end of next week? If we're lucky."

"That's awesome," Pike gushes. "How's Gilmore?"

"Flourishing." He smiles sadly. "Having the time of his life out in LA."

"Oh, Vax, I'm sorry," she says. "I didn't realize. Vex didn't tell me."

"Nah, it's alright," he says. "It's better for both of us, really."

"How's Keyleth?" Vex asks, smiling innocently.

"Keyleth is...Keyleth," he settles on. "Working her ass off, making the rest of us look bad, worrying she's still not doing enough, you know the drill. She's currently got some research grant that she's helping a friend with."

"That's cool," Pike says. "What's it about?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you," Vax says sheepishly.

Vex and Pike exchange a  _look_ , shaking their heads. "Men," they say in unison.

His retort is cut off by Pike's phone ringing. She pulls it out, checks the number and frowns. "Shit, I've gotta take this." She smiles apologetically. "It was nice talking with you, Vax. See you later." She answers her phone as she wanders off. "Dr. Trickfoot speaking; how may I help you?"

Vax clears his throat after a moment. "Speaking of Keyleth, she wanted me to tell you hi."

"That's sweet of her," Vex says. "One of these days, I'm going to have to meet that girl in person."

"Hence my suggestion that you take a vacation."

She flips him off. "Just promise me it'll happen  _before_ you marry her."

"We're not even dating," he says, returning her gesture. "You're so fucking weird sometimes, you know that?"

Vex just shrugs. "I've seen the way you look at her, brother," she says. "You can't tell me that you haven't thought about it, at least once."

He sighs. "Even if I  _had_ , which I'm not saying that I have, you know I'm not just going to elope or some shit," he says. "Like I could ever get married without you there."

"I know," she says softly. "Me either."

"Is someone getting married?" Pike asks, wandering back into frame. She shakes her head. "Never mind, don't answer that." She turns to Vex. "I'm so sorry to do this, but that was work."

Vex visibly deflates. "Let me guess, they need us right now."

Pike nods. "I'm so sorry," she repeats. "Apparently, it's an actual, legitimate emergency this time."

His sister sighs. "Alright. I'll be along in just a minute." She turns back to Vax, and he's a little shocked to see actual tears forming in her eyes. "God, Vax, I'm so fucking sorry."

He smiles, kisses his fingertips, touches them to his webcam. "It's fine, Stubby. I understand. Go be a badass, alright?"

She nods, returns the kiss. "Alright." She sniffles a little. "I love you."

"I love you more," he says. "Call me later?"

"Of course," she says, just moments before the call ends and he's left staring at his own reflection.

He's still brooding over his laptop maybe half an hour later when Keyleth sweeps back into the trailer, her phone pressed to her ear.

"Yeah, uh-huh, I'm still here," she says. "Yeah, he's here, too. Just give me one minute, okay?"

She pulls her phone away and covers the mouthpiece. "Hey, are you busy?"

He shakes his head. "Not particularly, why?"

"There's a guy on the phone for you," she says. "A Scanlan Shorthalt? He says you're gonna want to talk to him."

* * *

Vex is walking back to her bungalow, a little dazed and a  _lot_ annoyed, when she gets a text from Vax.

**Hey, so I can't really say why or how or give any details at all (how's that for a taste of your own medicine) but I'm going to be in your neck of the woods this coming weekend...**

She stops short.  _define "my neck of the woods"_

**Costa Rica. I'm literally going to be in Costa Rica this weekend.**

_holy fucking shit_

_are you serious?_

_you're not messing with me are you?_

_bc that would just be cruel Vax_

**I'm not messing with you, Stubby, I promise. Kiki and I are flying down Thursday**

_Best. News. Ever._

_....is it thursday yet?_

 


End file.
